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The purpose of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) is to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida. This blog presents ideas and information to further the cause of Florida's native plants and ecosystems.

A Bird Garden and a Challenge

My husband and I are birders. People frequently stop us and ecstatically tell us about such-and-such a bird they saw at their feeders, or describe a bird and ask us to help identify it. When my neighbor had Mourning Doves nesting in her trellis, I thrilled at peeking at the baby doves and watching them change and grow. I get excited when I see the first “snowbird” blue-gray gnatcatcher return from its summer home up north. I feel joy when I hear the bugling call of sandhill cranes and proud when I see tiny chicks begin to toddle after their parents. My love affair with birds runs deep, to say the least.

That said, it makes sense that I jumped to volunteer at the Palatlakaha Environmental and Agricultural Reserve (P.E.A.R.) Park Bird Garden. I had planned to write this article about all of the plants it contains, some of which are more bird-friendly than others. The species (listed at the bottom of this article) were selected for very particular attributes, including:

Ron Plakke teaching proper planting technique

The presence of seeds or berries which attract and feed the birds

Being native to central Florida, climate-adapted and low-maintenance

Drought tolerance

A dense growth habit which provides shade, cover and nesting locations for the birds

I learned volumes about plants and wildlife by working alongside Dr. Ron Plakke (the Bird Garden's designer) and all the other PEAR Park volunteers. We planted, weeded, watered, got to know each other, studied plants and birds, and had fun doing it. The garden won a design award at the annual Florida Native Plant Society conference and we were recognized by President Bush for volunteer service. PEAR Park was a featured event site at the recent Wings and Wildflowers festival because its gardens and meadows are bursting with wildflowers. When I consider the accolades our volunteer group has received, I can't help thinking, “Wow! I was part of that!”

Under the leadership of Barbara Plakke, the Central Florida Women’s Club planned, planted and initially maintained the Butterfly Garden at PEAR Park. If you have not seen it, it’s worth the trip. Because of Ron and Barbara’s enthusiasm, the Highland Lakes Garden Club joined the PEAR Association (the not-for-profit volunteer organization responsible for park restoration) and helped with many of our planting projects. At a recent PEAR Association meeting, all those in attendance found themselves looking around the room at each other, and realizing that there were no unfamiliar faces at the table. We challenged one other to bring at least one new person to join our group. I'd like to extend that challenge to F.N.P.S. members: get involved, volunteer locally, learn something new, have fun, and get a friend to join you.

P.E.A.R. Park Volunteers; Peg Lindsay and Peg Urban are both members of F.N.P.S. Lake Beautyberry Chapter.

Introduction: Purple berries clinging around stems with bright green foliage make Callicarpa americana stand out from late summer to winter. It is easy to see how beautyberry got its common name. Don’t let its looks fool you though; Callicarpa is more than just eye candy. Callicarpa americana is useful medicinally and as food for wildlife and people. American Beautyberry is not fussy about location, soil or light requirements. This tough plant is an American Beauty in every sense of the word. Its name comes from Greek: Kalli, means beautiful; Karpos means fruit.

Historic Medicinal Uses:
Native Americans had many uses for beautberry, both internally and externally. According to Taylor (1940), Native Americans used beautyberry externally as a steam and topical application. All parts of the pla…

﻿ ﻿Australian pines seem to be everywhere in the coastal regions in the bottom half of Florida. Their name is deceiving because, while they are native to Australia, they aren't pines or even conifers. They are flowering trees with separate male and female flowers, and what look like needles are really green twiglets with close-set circles of tiny leaves that drop at the first sign of a drought. In the photo to the right, the light-colored lines are where leaves where once attached. Most of the photosynthesis takes place in the twiglets.

There are three species of Australian pine (Casuarina spp) that have been imported into Florida for various purposes. They were widely planted to soak up the "swamps" in Florida, stabilize canals, and hold beaches. Unfortunately for Florida's ecosystems, the "pines" accomplished all this and more--like seeding prolifically, growing five feet or more per year, producing dense shade, and emitting an herbicide that kills most a…

These perky natives have numerous and endearing charms. Authors and growers disagree about the proper Latin name, but they are in complete agreement that more people should use more coonties in their landscapes.

What's to like?
Coonties are spritely and graceful in their form, tough as the dickens, bright green all year, and host plant for the beautiful blue atala
hairstreak butterfly. In fact, coonties are the only larval food for atalas. You can use them as specimen or accent plants, mass them together for ground cover, or use them in a line as a border. And to top that off, they have an interesting sex life. A subject we hardly ever get to talk about around here. More on that later. See more in Roger Hammer's 1995 Palmetto article, The Coontie and the Atala Hairstreak.

Slow growers, coonties are more expensive to buy than some other natives by relative size, but don't let that put you off. They are well worth the investment. They can be planted in full sun or fairly …